Aims cuts six staff positions

The president of Aims Community College informed two administrators and four faculty members this week that their contracts will not be renewed next year.

The move is part of a reorganization at the college to make it run more efficiently because of budget cuts, said Mark Olson, director of public information at Aims.

“Because of the budget crisis that we’re in, the president is looking at all aspects of Aims’ organizational structure,” Olson said. “She is trying to make this institution more effective and streamlined.”

Both administrators were asked to clean out their offices Tuesday and leave immediately. Olson and John Dent, president of the Aims Board of Trustees, declined to comment on the sudden departure.

Aims President Marsi Liddell was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment.

Consuelo Lopez, vice president of educational services, and Gary Hertel, academic dean of technology, were told that their services were no longer needed for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in June.

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Lopez, who was the highest ranking Hispanic at Aims, had been with the college for almost two years. At the request of her attorney, she declined to comment about the situation. Hertel, who had been with the college for 31⁄2 years, also declined to comment.

Because both were administrators, they were up for contract renewal every year.

The four faculty members were Eric Harris, emergency medical services; Janet Stapleton, mathematics; Sandra Lowe, fire science; and William Conrad, electronics. They will finish the spring quarter.

All were probationary faculty and had taught at the college for fewer than three years.

Liddell hired an outside party to conduct an operational audit of the college in February.

The company looked at all of the functions in the institution, including student services, financial aid, information technology, instruction and staffing patterns.

The company also compared Aims to other colleges of the same size to make sure it was running efficiently.

The results of the audit will be released to the faculty on Tuesday.

“We expect that this is not the end of the situation as far as the budgetary problems,” Dent said. “A lot depends on how grim the budget picture remains.”

The situation has caused concern among faculty at Aims, said Holly Hartwick, president of the faculty and associate professor and chairwoman of the English/speech communications, humanities and business division.

“We lost some good faculty that were critical to programs,” she said. “We were all very stunned.”

The college will likely try to maintain the number of classes it offers without increasing class size too much, she said. But it may have to hire adjunct professors because it is cheaper.

“The full-time faculty were hired because they brought something specific to the programs, so it is a setback to students,” she said. “But our adjunct faculty are very good.”

The college saved $386,894, including salary and benefits, by removing the six positions, said Carol Hoglund, vice president for administrative services.

Aims had to return $1 million of the $9.1 million it received from the state this year. State dollars make up 27 percent of Aims $30 million budget.

Next year, Hoglund projects the college will have to cut 20 percent, or $1.6 million, from its $8 million of state funding.

As a result of a hiring freeze, which began in February, Hoglund expects to save $1.9 million, mostly from vacant positions of people who retired this year or expect to retire next year.

The loss of a prominent Hispanic figure at Aims will be felt by the entire community, said Jorge Amaya, director of the Northern Colorado Latino Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s real hard to recruit Hispanics to a college if there are no Hispanics working there,” Amaya said. “If you don’t have a Latino presence, you’re not going to attract people.”

Still, Dent said he is satisfied that Liddell made the right decision.